Astrila is a normal girl in her Inuit tribe, but is left alone by her mother's death. She runs to the cliffs that overlook the sea and grieves, before she slips and falls off of the cliff into the icy sea. Something saves her, but what is it? Join h...
Kōri paces beside the bed, his thoughts filled with worry. The girl on the bed is unconscious, her dark skin paler than it should be from her dip in the frozen seas. Her black hair is matted in its long braid and snarled around her fur clothing - which indicates that she is from the nearby Inuit village due to its difference from the clothing of the other humans and the selkies themselves - is covered in a layer of slowly thawing ice. Her body is loosely covered by a dark pelt, its black fur smooth and shiny. It's a seal pelt, a selkie pelt.
Kōri can't wrap his head around that. When he found her sinking through the icy sea, drawn by the pull of the seven tears, she didn't have anything but her clothing with her. But once he pulled her out of the water, the pelt appeared beside her body. So he had to take her back to the selkie community, he had to. Kōri shakes his head, not wanting to worry about that, not wanting to know what his king will think. Tonraq bustles into the room, his basket of healing supplies clasped between his wrinkled hands.
His tone is stern and direct, but also calm. "Why did you call me here, Kōri. I don't see anything wrong with you."
Kōri bows respectfully to the short healer. "It is not me who needs the healing, Tonraq. It is the girl."
Something in Tonraq's eyes both calms and sharpens at once. He pushes past Kōri with surprising strength in his small body and kneels beside the bed that is lying flat on the floor. He places his basket beside himself and reaches out towards the girl's neck, presumably to examine her pulse. He hesitates just before his hand touches her and speaks again.
"What happened to her?"
"She fell into the sea from the cliffs by the Inuit village, Tonraq."
Tonraq nods. "Ah, hypothermia. If she isn't too far into it, this should be relatively easy to fix." He touches her neck and hums to himself with pursed lips. "Slow pulse, but strong." He moves his hand up to touch her face. "Still cold, but-" His hand touches her wet clothing and his head whips towards Kōri. "Why is she still in wet clothing?"
Kōri raises his hands placatingly. "With all due respect, Tonraq, it is not my place to remove them, even though I was called by the seven tears."
Tonraq scoffs. "Not your place! You may have made her worse by leaving her in these freezing clothes. Go get someone to help, if you won't."
Kōri nods and turns to leave the room, despite the feeling in his body of not wanting to leave her side. He doesn't know why it is there, or what it is, but the feeling is there, and it is strong. Kōri makes it as far as the door before something crashes into him. He doesn't see anything that could have hit him when he regains control of his body so he moves to take another step forward. It crashes into him again, stopping him from moving forward. He tries to take another step forward, prepared this time.
He doesn't stop moving when the thing crashes into him, whatever it is, and goes to take another step. This time the feeling returns twofold, and it is impossible for him to continue. He takes a step back, reentering the room, and almost gasps at the pressure that lifts off of him. He walks back towards Tonraq, and each step relieves more of the pressure. He stops at Tonraq's side, only for Tonraq to look up at him with a disapproving expression.
"I thought I told you to go get someone to help remove her wet clothes."
Kōri winces. "I know, I know. I tried, but I can quite literally not leave the room. Something is keeping me from doing so."
Something in Tonraq's eyes sparks. "We'll figure out why that is in a moment. For now, it seems like you will be helping me remove these."
The thought of removing her clothing while she is unconscious and unaware of what is going on disturbs Kōri, but Tonraq won't give him any room to refuse. They slowly work to strip the girl of her sodden and icy clothing, with Kōri keeping his eyes respectfully away from her body as he works to complete the task. Once they have finished, the pile of wet clothing beside the bed is higher than Kōri thought it would be with wet clothing, and they cover the girl back up with the black pelt before sitting back on their heels. They have left the bone fishhook around her neck, as it was relatively dry and also because it is a selkie fishhook. Tonraq turns to Kōri.
"All we can do now is wait, it's warm enough in here that we shouldn't crowd her in with heat. So tell me Kōri, what did you feel when you tried to leave the room?"
"I felt like something crashed into me when I reached the door, keeping me from moving farther. When I got a step past it, the feeling returned twofold."
Tonraq nods and questions further. "And you said that you were drawn to her by the call of seven tears?"
Kōri nods in assent. "Yes."
"This girl is your Siqiniq. The call of seven tears got mixed with that bond when her pelt appeared, so you are now stuck like this, at least until you fulfill what the call of seven tears requires. You won't be able to leave her side until then."
Kōri groans and tilts his head to look at the sky. Well, the ceiling of the room, since it is blocking his view of the sky. "How do you know what this is? Have you seen it before? I've never heard of it in all our stories."
"It is in the healer stories, Kōri. It is quite rare besides, only happening by chance. Most of the selkie Siqiniqs are not human-born selkies."
Kōri frowns. "I wonder which selkie is her father. Or mother, it could be either. But it being her father is more likely due to the call of seven tears. Humans don't steal the pelts of females anymore, at least not here.We know that one of her parents has to be a selkie, because she wouldn't have the hook otherwise."
Tonraq nods. "Yes, that will be quite interesting to discover. Now-"
He is interrupted by someone running into the room. "Tonraq, I heard you were here. Someone needs healing at the harbor-" He stops, having seen the girl. "Who is this?" His eyes narrow in on the pelt covering her and his voice takes on a hint of anger. "Whose pelt is this? It's not hers, I know everyone in the community. Whose pelt did she steal?"
He steps forward towards the girl, clearly to take the pelt away from her. He manages to tug on it once before two things happen. Kōri blocks him from pulling the pelt again and the girl's fingers move up to clench down on the pelt with a tight grip.
"King Kayi, stop. Please. This pelt is hers, and she is also naked beneath it."
Kayi opens his mouth but stops, with his grey eyes indicating his confusion. "Why, exactly is she naked?"
Tonraq speaks. "The girl fell into the frozen sea from the cliffs by the Inuit village. She is suffering from hypothermia, and we needed to remove her frozen clothing."
It is then that Kayi's eyes alight on the pile of wet clothing. "Ah, I see. Tonraq, are you able to leave to conduct another healing, or do you need to stay? I can find one of your apprentices if needed."
Tonraq shakes his head. "I can go, she is stable for now. We are waiting for her to wake and assess the situation from there." He looks at Kōri. "Stay with her, alright?"
Kōri nods, internally scoffing. It isn't like he is capable of leaving her anyways. Tonraq leaves the room with Kayi and Kōri sits back to wait for the girl to wake. ________________________________________________________________________________ What do you think of all these new people? Who do you think each of them are?(besides the obvious of Tonraq being a healer and Kayi being the leader) Tell me your thoughts! Here is another picture of Astrila.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
